FEED believes that economists should not only have a knowledge of the history of their subject and allied work in the social sciences, but also they should have a much richer understanding of economic and business history. Economists should be trained to think critically about their assumptions and methods, and to judge theories not simply on their mathematical originality or elegance. FEED believes in the value of pluralism and diversity in any science, where radically innovative ideas are encouraged, but they are tested by rigorous scrutiny and debate. Accordingly, FEED favours a greater pluralism of theoretical approaches within economics. The discipline should not be defined in terms of a set of favoured assumptions or techniques, but in terms of the use of rigorous scientific approaches to understand and explain economic phenomena.